In blood transfusion, bone marrow transplantation, immuno-therapeutic vaccine preparation, or other cell preparations ex vivo, one of the principal problems encountered is that of the preservation of cells. It is critical to be able to preserve cells, under good conditions of viability, for time periods compatible with clinical production and storage, and to make it possible to analyze cell preparations. The most commonly used method of long-term preservation of cells is to freeze and subsequently thaw them. However, during the freezing of cells, lysis of cells and loss of cell integrity may occur. This is often observed by the decrease in intact tumor cells and the concomitant increase in the amount of non-intact tumor cells in a sample of tumor cells. This problem can be even more complex when the cells have been modified or altered prior to preservation, and when the cells are obtained by proteolytic digestion of a tissue or tumor specimen. Preservation of cells under less extreme conditions, for example on ice (about 0° C.), refrigerated (about 4° C.), or at room temperature, prior to use, is also difficult as these storage conditions are effective only for a period of hours.